Slipknot to start work on new album in early 2017

The heavy metal band's last album, '.5: The Gray Chapter', came out in October 2014.

Slipknot will begin work on a new album early next year.

The heavy metal band’s last album, ‘.5: The Gray Chapter’, came out in October 2014 and was their first album in six years. However, band member Shawn Crahan has now suggested fans won’t have to wait quite as long for their next LP.

He told Rolling Stone that he and Slipknot guitarist Jim Root are planning to start writing new music together in February “because we want to write”. However, according to the US music magazine, the band have yet to set a firm date for their actual return to the recording studio.

He also opened up about his battle with alcoholism when he guested on Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian’s new radio show Never Meet Your Heroes.

During the show, he explained that Slipknot’s success ended up taking him down a destructive path. “There was a huge war going on in my head, and that kind of fed the booze,” he said. “That fed a lot of my issues with drinking and shit because I had given up drugs when I was a teenager so that wasn’t an issue for me, but the booze was really the anchor that I [still had].”

He continued: “I had bullshitted myself into thinking that I couldn’t go on stage without it like, ‘It’s good luck.’ Such addict bullshit.”